Related papers: Vacuum Decay in General Relativity
Unless our universe is decaying at an astronomical rate (i.e., on the present cosmological timescale of Gigayears, rather than on the quantum recurrence timescale of googolplexes), it would apparently produce an infinite number of observers…
We find the novel effect on the decay of a false vacuum in view of quantum field theory, which is induced by a field coupling to the scalar field related to a first-order phase transition. This effect of the environment can never be…
The problem of cosmological constant and vacuum energy is usually thought of as the subject of general relativity. However, the vacuum energy is important for the Universe even in the absence of gravity, i.e. in the case when the Newton…
The cosmological vacuum decay scenario recently proposed by Wang and Meng \cite{wm} is rediscussed. From thermodynamic arguments it is found that the $\epsilon$ parameter quantifying the vacuum decay rate must be positive in the presence of…
Among the several proposals to solve the incompatibility between the observed small value of the cosmological constant and the huge value obtained by quantum field theories, we can find the idea of a decaying vacuum energy density, leading…
We present a fully analytical calculation of the false vacuum decay rate for a self-interacting scalar field in the thin-wall approximation. We obtain the bounce solution, together with the Euclidean action, counter-terms and…
We consider radiative corrections to false vacuum decay within the framework of quantum mechanics for the general potential of the form 1/2 M q^2 (q-A)(q-B), where M , A and B are arbitrary parameters. For this type of potential we provide…
Within the quantum mechanical treatment of the decay problem one finds that at late times $t$ the survival probability of an unstable state cannot have the form of an exponentially decreasing function of time $t$ but it has an inverse…
The quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable state ("false vacuum decay") is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory and cosmology. This occurs via local formation of bubbles of true vacuum with their subsequent…
The false vacuum is a metastable state that can occur in quantum field theory, and its decay was first studied semi-classically by Coleman. In this work we consider the 1+1 dimensional $\varphi^4$ theory, which is the simplest model that…
The vacuum decay in a de Sitter universe is studied within semiclassical approximation for the class of effective inflaton potentials whose curvature at the top is close to a critical value. By comparing the actions of the Hawking - Moss…
We present a systematic framework for calculating the vacuum decay rate in D-dimensional electroweak theories, providing a unified treatment of quantum fluctuations for scalar, fermion, and gauge boson fields via a combined WKB expansion…
The aim of this paper is to reveal the deep relationship between matter and vacuum, and to seek for the same physical basis of the relativity and the quantum mechanics. In doing this, three postulates of vacuum fluctuation are proposed…
We describe a new method which allows one to evaluate the false vacuum decay rate for a general potential which may depend on an arbitrary number of scalar fields.
We consider the gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric ball of dust in the general relativistic weak gravity regime. The velocity of the matter as viewed by external observers is compared to the velocity gauged by local…
We compute the time variation of the fundamental constants (such as the ratio of the proton mass to the electron mass, the strong coupling constant, the fine structure constant and Newton's constant) within the context of the so-called…
Relativistic invariance of the vacuum is (or follows from) one of the Wightman axioms which is commonly believed to be true. Without these axioms, here we present a direct and general proof of continuous relativistic invariance of all…
A set of diverse but mutually consistent results obtained in different settings has spawned a new view of loop quantum gravity and its physical implications, based on the interplay of operator calculations and effective theory: Quantum…
We review the description of tunnelling phenomena in the semi-classical approximation in ordinary quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory. In particular, we describe in detail the calculation, up to the first quantum corrections, of…
We consider the Skyrme model modified by the addition of mass terms which explicitly break chiral symmetry and pick out a specific point on the model's target space as the unique true vacuum. However, they also allow the possibility of…